Gov. Mary Fallin’s office announced Tuesday her daughter will move her trailer from the governor’s mansion because it violates a state regulation.
In an interview with KFOR-TV’s Linda Cavanaugh, the governor said Christina Fallin is between homes, and moved the trailer onto the property in April.
When the story went viral after being picked up by the local social blog The Lost Ogle, several television stations flew helicopters over the mansion just east of the state Capitol to get a glimpse.
Trailer Belonging To Governor's Daughter To Be Removed From State Grounds http://t.co/I8AsFHpOKP #News9 pic.twitter.com/QjCfoI1t5s
— News 9 (@NEWS9) July 29, 2015
KFOR reports under normal circumstances, Oklahoma City’s city code prohibits travel trailers from being used a dwelling for more than 14 days in a calendar year. The governor’s mansion is exempt because it’s state property.
But according to KFOR, the trailer violates a different ordinance:
The Capitol Medical Center Improvement Zoning Commission does state that you cannot have a trailer on state property in a certain area, which includes the governor’s mansion. “It never dawned on me that a mansion, a governor’s mansion, might be on a Capitol medical zone, so we’re gonna remove the trailer by this Sunday and she’s going to make other living arrangements,” Fallin said.
The CMZ consists of many state agency headquarters, the state Capitol, the governor’s mansion, and the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. It’s bounded by NE 30th Street to the north, NE 8th to the south, Interstate 235 to the west, and Kelley and Lottie Aves. to the east.
So how did “Trailergate” even become a thing?
In a story in Sunday’sOklahoman, Capitol bureau chief Rick Green wrote about Fallin’s adult children visiting the governor’s mansion during the summer. Her stepson Alex Christensen is a student who’s living in the mansion while he’s home from college, and his older brother Adam currently lives in the apartment over the garage. The two are the sons of Fallin’s husband, Wade Christensen.
"Wade and I are very fortunate to have a close knit family and are really blessed having some of our kids home for the summer," Fallin said. "A couple of our adult children have moved out of state pursuing their dreams. "Family is very important to us as parents. Our children enjoy spending time with us too and we love spending time with them, especially as we are all really busy people. "Having the time to catch up on their lives, getting together for a cookout or watching a movie at night is a real treat. Like any working mom or dad, life is a lot easier when you have a loving and supportive family around you."
Fallin’s daughter Christina has been a popular subject for the blog The Lost Ogle, which often parodies politicians, members of the media, and other public figures. They zeroed in on the trailer angle:
Anyway, one thing The Oklahoman article does not mention is that Christina’s trailer may technically be illegal and violate county code. For example, you can’t let your cousin from Newalla move his RV into your backyard in Bluff Creek and just live out of it. We have rules and regulations to prevent such things from happening and protect home property values. … Who knows? Maybe the Governor’s Mansion meets certain zoning requirements and the trailer doesn’t violate any laws. It doesn’t really matter. We still have someone living out of a trailer at our Governor’s mansion.
Several KFOR viewers contacted the television station asking about the zoning violations, which led to the governor’s sit-down interview with Cavanaugh during Tuesday evening’s newscast. Fallin told the longtime news anchor she would always help her daughter, and that Christina Fallin hadn’t received any special benefit as the daughter of the state’s chief executive.
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